The South Bend Museum of Art accepts submission materials from artists, art organizations and curators. All submissions are reviewed by the museum’s Exhibitions Committee on a rolling basis throughout the year, and are considered for all available opportunities.
You will be contacted via e-mail or phone if the Committee identifies an appropriate opportunity for your work. Please keep your emailed submission to 10MB or less. Please do not call or e-mail to check the status of your submission.
Send all materials to submissions@southbendart.org. Please keep everything under 10MB.
You may also provide us with an online portfolio or a PDF version as long as it includes all of the above information.
There are 4 galleries at the SBMA available for changing exhibitions, each with its own focus. Please state your preference if you have one.
All artwork coming into the South Bend Museum of Art will be chosen by a jury process or curatorial selection. Any exception to this must be approved by both the curatorial staff and the Exhibition Committee. In no case will any entrant to any exhibition be guaranteed acceptance of one or more pieces.
All juried shows will have a juror who is a non-member and non-affiliated of the exhibiting group. In the case that a local organization is part of a national affiliate, a national member may be a juror. The South Bend Museum of Art reserves the right to have final approval of the juror and must be informed of the juror before an agreement with the juror is formed.
The date for jurying should be set in accordance with installation timelines. The site of the jurying will be determined by SBMA staff and will take place within one or two days following the close of the previous show. Only the juror, a group representative assisting in the jurying process, and SBMA staff may be present during the jurying process. All handling of artwork will be the responsibility of the SBMA staff.
Entry Criteria and Prospectus
The SBMA reserves the right to refuse any work that does not meet the criteria.
Other opportunities at the SBMA for artists include:
Juried exhibitions: The SBMA’s regional Biennial exhibition occurs in odd years, (2023, 2025, etc.). The call for entries is usually announced in January. Please check this web page for details at that time.
We love artists and would love to hear from you if you have any questions or comments:
Curatorial Department
South Bend Museum of Art
120 S. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
South Bend, IN 46601
phone: 574.235.9102
Is there any fee to submit?
Nope.
How long will it take to hear back about my submission?
We unfortunately do not have the staffing resources to review submissions as often as we would like and cannot reply to every submission. We do look at every submission, however. Our Exhibitions Committee reviews submissions in the order they are received. You will be contacted via e-mail or phone if the Committee identifies an appropriate opportunity for your work.
Do you offer financial support to selected artists/curators?
Yes — as often as we can. Stipends are dependent on the exhibition, the space, distance the work needs to travel, and what the work is. We typically are able to offer $450–$550 for Art League Gallery exhibitions. Less for artists included in larger, group exhibitions. Other assistance is provided to artists, curators and groups on a case by case basis.
Is there any other way to get my submission materials to you?
While we prefer you email your submission to submissions@southbendart.org, we want to make it easy for you. You can alternately load your files onto a thumb drive and mail or deliver to:
South Bend Museum of Art
Artist Submissions
120 S. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
South Bend, IN 46601
Please be sure to include a SASE if you would like your thumb drive returned. Also, please keep everything digital and loaded on the thumb drive — any printed materials will not be returned.
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